This invention relates to an apparatus for facilitating the conveyance of material and the erection of walls of closed circumference from bricks, such as refractory bricks, and particularly for the lining of converters, metallurgical furnaces, holding vessels and like equipment.
It is previously known in lining converters to utilize raisable and lowerable working platforms which are carried by frames and which can be moved up or down in the converter as the work proceeds and to which the material is conveyed from ground level by means of conveyers. The bricks are transported on pallets to the working site, for instance by a truck which places the pallets carrying the bricks of desired sizes and shapes on pallet tables, and from the pallet tables the bricks are placed, in the size-and-shape order indicated by the masonry drawing, for conveyance on a conveyer to a location below (or above) the converter from where the bricks are transferred to a vertical conveyer and carried by such conveyer to a suitable level above the platform where a worker receives the bricks and puts them in position while taking care that the requisite fit and the prescribed dilatation joints are realized.
One of the greatest problems inherent in this prior art apparatus is the problem of conveyance and particularly the problem of how the material shall be transferred to and from the vertical conveyer in the converter. If the vertical conveyer is of constant length and of constant location in the converter during the entire course of the work, the platform must be movable in relation to the conveyer to permit being raised and lowered, in which case either the level of the discharge point with respect to the platform is altered, which is highly unsuitable, or the vertical conveyer must have several discharge points, which is inter alia, dangerous. An alternative is to use relatively short vertical conveyers of constant length which may be shifted together with the platform, but this also entails problems which have not been satisfactorily solved.
If use is made, for instance for works in an open-top or open-bottom converter, of a vertical conveyer of constant length and a horizontal or inclined conveyer connecting thereonto for moving material to the vertical conveyer, the horizontal or inclined conveyer must be able to be moved towards and away from the conveyer when the vertical conveyer in the converter is raised or lowered.
Another serious problem inherent in the prior art apparatus is the arrangement of the vertical frame which carries both the working platform and the vertical conveyer. If side walls are put up in a converter which is open downwardly during this work, the frame can be placed at ground level beneath the converter. The platform carried by the frame can then be lifted upwardly through the open lower end of the converter and moved further upwardly inside the converter by lifting of the frame on which the platform is carried. The distance between ground level and the lower end of the converter may, however, be considerable and so may the proper vertical length of the conveyer, for which reason the frame must be extendable. This has earlier been realised by enlarging the frame with sections from below as the frame is raised. Furthermore, it has also been suggested to extend the vertical conveyer in the same way, that is, by connecting sections thereonto.
A further problem is encountered at the discharge end of the vertical conveyer, where the material is to be received or possibly transferred to roller tables or similar work-facilitating aids.
Summarizing, the prior art apparatuses entail three main problems which in part are intimately bound up with one another, viz. (1) the problem of material conveyance, (2) the problem of how best to construct the frame of the working platform and (3) the problem of receiving and transferring the material from the vertical conveyer to the brickwork in the converter.
Furthermore, several other problems are also encountered, some of which are directly dependent upon the solutions which are chosen for the main problems, while others depend upon the safety requirements for the operation, the personnel on the working platform and the personnel at ground level.